Henri Laborit

Henri Laborit (November 21, 1914 - May 18, 1995) was a French physician, writer and philosopher.

Laborit was born in Hanoi, Vietnam and started his career as a neurosurgeon in the Marines and then moved on to fundamental research. He won the prestigious Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research in 1957. Laborit later became a research head at Boucicault Hospital in Paris.

His interests included psychotropic drugs, eutonology, and memory. He pioneered the use of dopamine antagonists to reduce shock in injured soldiers. His observation that people treated with these drugs showed reduced interest in their surroundings led to their later use as antipsychotics [ Diaz, Jaime. How Drugs Influence Behavior. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1996.] . He was also the first researcher to study GHB, in the early 1960s. He hoped that it would be an orally bioavailable precursor to the neurotransmitter GABA, but it proved to have other uses and was later discovered as an endogenous neurotransmitter.

Cultural references

He appeared in the 1980 Alain Resnais film "Mon oncle d'Amérique", which is built around the ideas of Laborit and uses the stories of three people to illustrate theories deriving from evolutionary psychology regarding the relationship of self and society.

The French-born American market researcher Clotaire Rapaille considered Laborit to be an important influence in his work. [http://www.randomhouse.com/broadway/culturecode/influences.html]

Bibliography

* " _fr. Physiologie et biologie du système nerveux végétatif au service de la chirurgie" (1950)
* " _fr. L’anesthésie facilitée par les synergies médicamenteuses" (1951)
* " _fr. Réaction organique à l’agression et choc" (1952)
* " _fr. Pratique de l’hibernothérapie en chirurgie et en médecine" (1954)
* " _fr. Résistance et soumission en physio-biologie : l’hibernation artificielle" (1954)
* " _fr. Excitabilité neuro-musculaire et équilibre ionique. Intérêt pratique en chirurgie et hibernothérapie" (1955)
* " _fr. Le delirium tremens" (1956)
* " _fr. Bases physio-biologiques et principes généraux de réanimation" (1958)
* " _fr. Les destins de la vie et de l’homme. Controverses par lettres sur des thèmes biologiques" (1959)
* " _fr. Physiologie humaine (cellulaire et organique)" (1961)
* " _fr. Du soleil à l’homme" (1963)
* " _fr. Les régulations métaboliques" (1965)
* " _fr. Biologie et structure" (1968)
* " _fr. Neurophysiologie. Aspects métaboliques et pharmacologiques" (1969)
* " _fr. L’Homme imaginant : Essai de biologie politique" (1970)
* " _fr. L’homme et la ville" (1971)
* " _fr. L’agressivité détournée : Introduction à une biologie du comportement social" (1970)
* " _fr. La Société informationnelle : Idées pour l’autogestion" (1973)
* " _fr. Les Comportements : Biologie, physiologie, pharmacologie" (1973)
* " _fr. La Nouvelle grille" (1974)
* " _fr. L’Éloge de la fuite" (1976)
* " _fr. Discours sans méthode" (1978)
* " _fr. L’Inhibition de l’action" (1979)
* " _fr. La Colombe assassinée" (1983)
* " _fr. Dieu ne joue pas aux dés" (1987)
* " _fr. La vie antérieure" (1987)
* " _fr. Les récepteurs centraux et la transduction de signaux" (1990)
* " _fr. L’esprit dans le grenier" (1992)
* " _fr. Étoiles et molécules" (1992)
* " _fr. La légende des comportements" (1994)
* " _fr. Une Vie - Derniers entretiens" (1996)

ee also

* "Mon oncle d'Amérique"

References

External links

* [http://www.recollectionbooks.com/bleed/0518.htm#HenriLaborit Daily Bleed Calendar]